30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Cash Was Not King

Every so often, baseball fans will have their world rocked by a blockbuster trade involving their franchise. Depending on the trade, it can leave you feeling depressed, invigorated, or somewhere in the middle.Baseball card collectors experience this too.Last Saturday, I went to the Serramonte Mall Sports Card, Toys, and Collectibles Show in Daly City and had the opportunity to hang out and talk shop with guys like Mr. Haverkamp (famous blog supporter) and Brady (St. Louis Cardinals' Cardboard).I also hung out with my good buddyMike, who is my goto guy when it comes to autographs. He's really into acquiring in-person autographs at golf tournaments and team practices. Last year, he started picking up rookie cards, having the players sign them, then getting them slabbed by Beckett.I finally got a chance to check out his inventory and these are the cards I was interested in:

1988 Topps #779

There are only six left-handed pitchers to win 300 MLB games and Glavine was one of them. As a fellow lefty, this card was kind of a no-brainer. He had a few different brands to choose from, but I liked how his signature looked on this card the best.

1991 Upper Deck Final Edition #55F

Like Glavine, my buddy has several different Pudge signed rookie cards available. Ultimately I went with this one, because of the nice action shot and the HOF 17inscription.

1990-91 Upper Deck #46

I don't write about hockey on my blog very often, but that doesn't mean I'm not a huge fan of the sport. I've been collecting hockey cards for over twenty-five years and Mike Modano was right there from the beginning. One of the first hockey products I ever busted was 1990-91 Upper Deck and as soon as saw this card sitting in his stack, I added it to mine.Last... but certainly not least is this beauty:

1986 McDonald's #NNO

Oddball rookie card issues are cool. Oddball rookie cards of hall of famers are cooler. Oddball rookie cards of hall of famers that have been autographed are the absolute coolest. I grew up hating the San Francisco 49ers, but when it comes to #80 there was only appreciation and admiration. If I was going to only buy one card, it would have been this Rice.

So now that I've shown off the cards I was interested in... what did I have to give up?

Since cash is king, early negotiations involved me buying the four cards. The Rice alone was going to set me back $80, because he paid $50 for the autograph, around $15 for the card, and $10 to have the autograph authenticated and slabbed. He was willing to give me a "homeboy" discount and sell me all four cards for $140.

One problem was the $100monthly budget I established for myself at the start of the month. Another problem was most of that $100 had already been spent on eBay and COMC purchases. But that wasn't going to keep me from at least grabbing the Rice.As I went back and forth debating on whether or not I'd grab the three other signatures, my buddy offered up a trade I just couldn't refuse.

A few years ago, he purchased a bunch of Joe Montanasigned and framed lithographs on eBay. He sold me one for $60. The original plan was to give it to my brother or father for Christmas, but I never got around to doing it. So it sat around in my dining room behind some other art prints waiting to be hung up.Mike's Montanainventory had dried up, so he told me he'd give me the four autographs for the Montanalithograph and lunch.I immediately took him up on his offer, grabbed him a teriyaki chicken meal at the food court and called it a day. It was one of those trades where both parties walked away feeling invigorated. I was able to secure four hall of fame signatures for about $75. And he received a Joe Montanasigned lithograph that he'll easily be able to flip to one of his customers for a nice profit.In addition to this trade, I made a few card purchases from other dealers. Brady also hooked me up with a 200ct. boxfilled with cards. But this post has dragged on long enough. I'll share them in a future post.In the meantime, here's today's hobby question:

If you could meet any living athlete and they'd be willing to sign one trading card in your collection, what athlete and card would you pick?

2001 Topps Gallery #151

I've always been a big Topps Galleryfan since the mid90's... and the 2001design is one of my favorites. It also happens to be Ichiro'srookie season. The only thing missing from this card is his signature.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

1976 Topps Traded #74T

It's weird how some deaths affect you more than others. I was truly saddened to read about Oscar Gamble and his fight against ameloblastic carcinoma. I can't exactly say that I was a huge fan of his, but his famous 1976 Topps Traded card is a treasured card in my collection. It brings a smile to my face every time I flip through my 70'sbinder. Rest in peaceMr. Gamble.

12 comments:

1st of all that Jerry Rice rocks. I collected those McDonalds cards when they were fresh. If I recall correctly they had an All Star set that was distributed in places that weren't close to an NFL city and team specific sets cards as well. I ended up with a bunch of them. I still have the Broncos Clint Sampson because it's the only card ever made of him and I needed it for my fantasy players collection.

To answer your question....that's a tuff one but I think I'd have Eddie Murray sign his rookie card (78 Topps).

BTW "....grabbed him a teriyaki chicken meal at the food court...." wins the 'Lines I Never Thought I'd Read On A Card Blog" Award.

A pair of Mariners for me, the obvious: Ken Griffey Jr and his 1989 Upper Deck #1 and the second would be Jay Buhner and his 1988 Score Traded #95T. Buhner’s 88 Score Traded is a dual win, an XRC and one of his first cards as a Mariner.

I'd also go with Ichiro, though I'd probably have him sign the 2001 Upper Deck rookie of his I pulled when I was first getting into baseball cards. Either that or the National Chicle SP of him in a Pilots jersey.

I'm not sure who I'd choose for my living athlete to sign. I met Dwight Gooden (rather, I paid like $20 for the privilege to receive his autograph in person) which was pretty cool. Hmmmm. That Glavine card sure is nice.

John Miller - It truly is. I've actually discovered a lot of great Gamble cards from everybody's tribute posts.

Commishbob - I remember getting the cards and scratching them off back in the day. Glad there were people out there wise enough to keep some of them unscratched. As for the Murray... that would be mother f'n awesome! And I'll take any blog award I can get my hands on.

Sport Card Collectors - I'd love to get a Griffey signed UD card. One day maybe. I'm sure it won't be cheap.

ned - Me too. I was just flipping through my Al Kaline collection and admiring his signature.

Corky - Yeah... an 89 UD Griffey would be crossing off a biggie for me.

Anonymous - Talk to the chef buddy... you wanted chicken... you got chicken. I wanted Rice. I got Rice. :)

Peter K Steinberg - When I first started diving into the whole rookie card autographs, Gooden was one of the guys I targeted. Have his Topps and Leaf rookies signed. One day I'll grab his Donruss, Fleer, and OPC rookie cards too.

About Me

I've been collecting cardboard off and on since the early 80's. I'm presently collecting. But who knows what the future holds in store for me.
One thing is for certain... I'll have my blog to help relive some of my favorite hobby moments.